Ipswich Town FC

Ipswich Town 1 Tottenham Hotspur 2 - Football League Division One

The town of Ipswich took shape in Anglo-Saxon times as the main centre between York and London for North Sea trade to Scandinavia and the Rhine. Before that, under the Roman empire, the area was busy as the Orwell and Gipping formed an important route inland to rural towns and settlements. The largest villa in Suffolk stood at Castle Hill. Occupation of the region around Ipswich and the rivers had been continuous since the Stone Age, but the settlement at Ipswich itself belongs to the Roman period and after.

Hot on the heels of the trip to Stoke the previous weekend, it was back in the Dormobile for the relatively short journey to Ipswich. Once again Spurs were well supported at Portman Road and we crammed into the tightly packed visitors terrace behind the goal. Both sets of players elected to wear alternative footwear as conventional boots were not an option on the frozen surface.

Bobby Robson’s Town side was developing into a fine team, capable of playing effective and entertaining football. Although they never won the League Championship that their early promise suggested (emulating the Ramsey team of the early 60’s would have been fitting – Ed), they were to go on to win both the FA and UEFA Cups in the subsequent years.

The team facing Spurs that day will be familiar to many - Cooper, Burley, Mills, Talbot, Hunter, Beattie, Woods, Osborne, Johnson, Whymark & Lambert. However, it was Spurs that adapted better to the conditions that day. A Keith Osgood penalty and a goal from Ralph Coates proved sufficient to take the points, Dave Johnson replying for Town in front of 24,019 crowd.